Recordings › False Hadith: The Prophet ﷺ Was Poisoned Before He Died · 17 Sep 2018 › Segment 2 of 5
Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith authentic malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imam bukhari sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imam al-bukhari imaam imams prayer leader muftis dalil daleel adillah adilla proof rawi raawi ruwat rijal aalimThe chain of the poisoning report: Yunus, al-Zuhri and the Abu Dawud version
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This segment3:26 to 6:49 · 3 min 23 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenMufti Abu Layth finds the chains unacceptable: the Bukhari version runs through Yunus, whom early critics faulted for his memory, and through al-Zuhri, who does not state that he heard it, while the Abu Dawud version has a narrator criticised for mistakes.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth examines the chain, taking the strongest version, Sahih al-Bukhari 4428, which he says is narrated from Yunus [?] from al-Zuhri. On Yunus he reports that Abu Zur'a said that when Yunus did not transmit from something written it was as though he had nothing, that Imam Ahmad said he was not someone who knew hadith and would mix up reports from different teachers, and that other critics called his memory terrible, said he was not an evidence and that he brought unacceptable reports. On al-Zuhri he says that here al-Zuhri does not state that he heard the report, that a critic placed him among those whose reports are not accepted without explicit hearing, and that al-Zuhri sometimes covered up not having heard directly, hearing some reports through his brother; al-Nasa'i [?] likewise does not state hearing. He adds that the Abu Dawud version has a narrator whose name is garbled in the transcript whom critics, including Imam Malik, problematised as truthful but prone to mistakes, and that the Musnad Ahmad version again comes through al-Zuhri, so most chains are unacceptable in his view.
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the chain of the poisoning report is unacceptable because Yunus was faulted by early critics for his memory and al-Zuhri does not state that he heard it.
“I will show the contradiction and then also show from the chain perspective why it is unacceptable.”
Category: method
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine3:26 to 6:49 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
I mean I don't know at what stage this incident got fabricated or people recreated this event but they did. This hadith or this story is massively contradictory. I will show the contradiction and then also show from the chain perspective why it is unacceptable. So let's take a look at the chain first. taking the strongest which is Sahil Bkari uh and it has its uh chain in Dharmi and Abu Daw and Muslims Ahmed.
So in Sah Bkari hadith number 4428 is narrated from Ununice from Zi [Music] who says that said that I still continue to find this poison from that food. Now ununice the problem with ununice right here ali is that Abu Zur has transmitted about him that when he would not transmit from something that was written it was as though he had nothing.
He was not a a scholar a master of hadith. He was not a he says [Music] he was if he was trying to narrate from memory he was unreliable. Okay. Im Ahmed states about him. He was not somebody that even knew hadith.
Um and he mentions that that he would often mix up hadith like sometimes he would be transmitting one hadith from somebody over here, one from somebody over here and he would put parts of it with him and parts of it with him. So Ununice there are already huge problems with him. um transmits about him.
He says, "I saw Ununice and he was terrible in his memory." The famous says about him that he's not an evidence and he says and sometimes he brings some that are unacceptable. Okay. Second person in the chain is Zuhari and Zui here is not saying he heard and he is a has put him from the in his uh book considers him to be a considers him to be a unacceptable.
The chain is is not connected. He himself who alim also mentions that some of his narrations he also kind of tries to cover up sometimes because he hasn't heard them directly. Some of his narrations he hears through his brother Abdullah and highlights that there's problems sometimes with as does Nasiwa here himself does not say I heard he just says so as you can see this chain is problematic there is a varying chain bringing the same hadith in Abu D and that chain has
the person in it Muhammadbnari who says problematizes as a problematic narrator as does im Malik as does even says that although he's a a truthful person but he makes mistakes and said he's considered weak as well right now and then there's a narration in Muslim Ahmed once again it comes from Zi with so it's unacceptable right now you'll find that with most of the chains But now let's go to the content of this hadith.
Paragraphs overlapping 3:26 to 6:49. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-09-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gcid83kra2i/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, September 17). Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable? [Video, segment 2018-09-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gcid83kra2i/s/2/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable?" Video, segment 2018-09-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 17, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gcid83kra2i/s/2/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-09-17-S02, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable?}}, year = {2018}, month = {9}, date = {2018-09-17}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gcid83kra2i/s/2/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gcid83kra2i/s/2/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-09-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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